Retail is one of the most competitive industries; meeting the customers' needs while slaying the competition and staying relevant in the market can be intricate and requires lots of work.
For starters, you must ensure that your store is fully compliant and meets the correct standards. Here's why in-store compliance matters:
- Non-compliance can result in lost sales and unnecessary costs: Poor compliance translates into inadequate customer service, reduced customer retention, and a drop in sales. Simply because your products are not being presented correctly or promotions are not being executed as they should.
- After all, customers can't buy from empty shelves or hidden displays. Shoppers won't buy out-of-date perishables, and target audiences may be switched off by poor presentation and incorrect pricing.
- Many studies have shown that keeping promotional displays well-stocked, well-positioned on the shelf, with the right tickets, in the appropriate location in-store can lift your sales by over 60%.
How can a promotion be poorly executed?
- Non-participant: the store does not run the promotion at all
- Late starter: the store starts late at running the promotion
- Early finisher: the store early finishes the promotion
- The display does not show all the necessary SKUs
- The display is non-compliant, meaning it is not allocated to the agreed brands over the entire period of the promotion, or it is not allocated at all.
- The store staff is inconsistent with the replenishment and does not keep up.
That said, executing promotions with 100% compliance is not always an easy task. Moreover, compliance with brand standards, planograms, guidelines, promotions, and displays is so much more difficult when the products are sold by a retailer instead of your own store. In addition to this, there is the need to provide a good customer experience and to keep up with the competition.
How can brand managers make sure their promotions and merchandising guidelines are being executed correctly?
To come out on top, CPG companies must be diligent about in-store execution, ensuring their products are appropriately stocked, and promotions are in place, on schedule, with compliant displays and staff that keeps up with the ride in demand.
That means having constant access at the store level. However, this can often translate into additional costs or too much effort on the part of a brand's team.
For several years now, SmartSpotter has made use of flexible resourcing for field marketing activities. As a result, we have carefully built an unrivalled network of field reporters and merchandisers who provide the eyes, insights, and hands that keep your retail execution perfect.
We continue to help some of the largest brands and companies to make sure stores are compliant, and promotions are executed properly, with modern digital applications to optimize in-store execution by leveraging a crowd-sourced workforce of thousands of shoppers and merchandisers all over Australia,
